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Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Burlington, ON, Canada
Age: 25
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Turbo'd R18 in PAS mag !!!
http://pasmag.com/article.asp?ID=201
     
Quote:
Ryan Shutt knows a thing or two about the Honda Civic. His 1997 Civic EX was featured right here in Performance Auto & Sound back in 2004 (Vol. 6, Issue 7). That Civic stood out from the pack and caught the attention of Honda Motor Co. USA. When Honda launched the new 2006 Civic EX it wanted to display a project version at the 2005 SEMA show, and Shutt was the perfect candidate to take on the task.
In September 2005 Shutt was handed the keys to the Civic and had six weeks to get the car ready for SEMA. Owned by Honda, the Civic is actually on loan to Shutt for use at various shows and events across North America. What this meant was the cost for the build was minimal to Shutt as most of the parts and service was provided by sponsorships.
Shutt stayed away from extensive performance modifications, choosing instead to focus on the exterior and audio system of the Civic. He left the 1.8L, four-cylinder V-tec engine in place and chose to add some boost to the 16-valve SOHC motor. To get some more power Shutt added a Top Fuel engine management system and a Turbosmart e-boost 3 boost controller. Turbosmart also provided the blow off valve. The turbo itself is a Precision Turbo ball bearing turbocharger with the piping and intercooler coming via Vibrant. The turbocharger is fed by a Nitrous Express nitrous oxide injection system with two bottles. The spent gases are expelled by a Top Fuel exhaust system.
Once the work under the hood was complete, Shutt turned his attention to upgrading the look of the Civic. To get the results he wanted, Shutt entrusted the body work to Detrich Auto Body in his hometown of Baltimore, MD. They quickly went to work moulding an Audio Originals custom body kit to the car. Audio Originals improved upon the Civic with custom front and rear bumpers, a custom grill and custom fenders. Not finished there, Audio Originals added some spoilers to give the Civic a more aggressive look on the street. Detrich Auto Body then scrapped the hood, roof and trunk in favour of carbon fibre versions. Finally, Shutt blacked out the headlights and taillights to give the car a unique style.
Once the body was complete, Detrich Auto Body focused on the graphic scheme that would make this Civic grab everyone’s attention on the show floor. Shutt opted for a two ton design using BASF custom colours, which gives the car a strong presence on the street or on the stage. Speed Design added the final touches with some accent graphics.
Of course, a sweet ride like this Civic is nothing without a good pair of shoes to take Shutt from place to place. Thus, Shutt upgraded the wheels to 19 by 8.5-inch Davin Speed S2 models and wrapped them in 215/35ZR-19 SP9000 rubber from Dunlop Tires. Shutt also improved stopping power by upgrading the front calipers to an SSBC Force 10 brake system. The suspension was improved via Eibach springs and struts up front. SPC Performance alignment components keep this Civic under control when it’s dropped to pavement scraping levels.
With the Civic now grabbing plenty of attention on the outside, it was time to focus on the inside and create something that would blow the doors off the competition. The interior upgrades were performed by Glen McKinney and he transferred the theme of the exterior into the interior with a seamless flow. The stock seats were ditched in favour of OMP racing seats and harnesses. The rest of the interior was treated to a slick re-design as McKinney used Tsunami suede on the dash, doors and trunk. After some carbon fibre found its way on the exterior, the door inserts were given the same treatment. The bottles for the nitrous system found their way inside, mounted on suede-wrapped panels attached to the rear quarter panels.
With so much already done to the Civic, it was no surprise that Shutt went big when it came time for the ICE system to be designed and built. Everything gets started via an Alpine IVA-D300 head unit that was mounted in the dash’s stock location. It is ISO-mounted with a custom steel bracket to solidify its presence. The Alpine plastic trim was moulded to the dash as well as a Tsunami display. The two sides of the OEM plastic pieces were glued together with epoxy and smoothed with body filler to give the dash its clean look. As part of that panel, Shutt added several gauges from Stewart Warner. But the gauges didn’t stop there as Shutt also had some moulded to a second trim piece closer to the windshield and around the shifter.
From the Alpine head unit, the audio levels really get kicked up a notch throughout the system as Polk Audio pieces fill the interior. A Polk Audio C300.2 amp handles the rear fill while running the SR6500 components in the trunk. An interesting modification here is that this part of the system is only operable when the trunk is open. A C500.1 amp handles two SR124 woofers at a 2ohm mono load. That leaves two C400.4 amps to handle the mid range and run the front stage. One of the amps runs the door mounted SR6500 while the other is responsible for the SR5250 components in the A-pillars. The C300.2 and C500.1 are hidden while the C400.4 amps are bolted to square steel tubes mounted on the rear deck.
To mount the SR5250 components to the A-pillar, Shutt used a child’s mini-volleyball to shape a fiberglass enclosure for the 5.25 inch mids. A three-quarter inch MDF ring was attached so the mids could be mounted. The enclosures were then moulded to the A-pillar with Duraglass and body filler. Tweeter mounting rings are angled off just above the enclosures. A quarter inch threaded insert was welded to each a-pillar so the pods could be bolted on directly. A pair of SR124DVC subwoofers resides in a modified db212-2 vented enclosure while the mid bass is the responsibility of a pair of SR6501 drivers. To make sure there was enough power to run this system, Shutt installed a Tsunami battery under the hood and added two more to make sure there’s never a power issue. Shutt also used Tsunami for the main power wire and distribution blocks.
Shutt truly established a great ride with his version of the 2006 Honda Civic and it’s hard to believe he did it all in a six-week window. While Shutt spent in the neighbourhood of $4,000 out of his own pocket, the real heroes of this build are all the sponsors that contributed, including: Honda, Polk Audio, Davin, Detrich Auto Body, Glosser, Eibach, SSBC, OMP, Precision Turbo and Nitrous Express. All that help has already generated some positive feedback and Shutt took home the Dunlop MAXXED OUT award at SEMA.
This Civic is a head turner and Shutt gave Honda something it can display at every show it attends. “The big story of this vehicle is how well it came together given how little time we had to work on it,” said Shutt. “I use the system to blow people away at car shows with volume and sound quality. I hope I’m doing my part to save the world from the incredibly bad sound that you usually hear coming out of modified cars at shows. I’m demonstrating that car audio doesn’t have to be sloppy bass and shrill treble — you really can make a system that sounds like real music, plays loud and looks flashy at the same time.”
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07-17-2006, 07:57 AM
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damn!!!lets give it up for another "WEll DONE" civic..
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